


Stifle The Choice, The Air In Your Lungs

by Go0se



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mentioned Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims, My First Work In This Fandom and it's uh. this, Revenge, Short One Shot, Spoilers, Transcribed, Up to episode 160 'The Eye Opens', spoilers everywhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22897228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go0se/pseuds/Go0se
Summary: ELIASYou really believe you're going to kill me, Jon?ARCHIVISTNo.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	Stifle The Choice, The Air In Your Lungs

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from 'Broken Crown', by Mumford and Sons, which I realize is pretty on the nose but consider: I like it  
> As an explanation for the tags, no archive warnings apply exactly because the violence isn't inflicted, but is described pretty graphically.
> 
>  **Warnings for** : implied kidnapping, description of intent to do significant harm, body horror, torture, claustrophobia, living ("living") through torture, mention of bugs (worms, beetles), implied infestation of human bodies.
> 
> -

[Tape clicks on.  
Interior: Somewhere underground.

The air quality is strange and crackling. Elias Bouchard does not breathe. We do hear him sigh in annoyance though.  
Half a second later a door loudly and ominously creaks open. A swell of static arrives with it, and then fades. The air itself clears.

Footsteps.]

ELIAS  
Good evening, Jon.

ARCHIVIST  
Magnus.

ELIAS (JONAH)  
The dark has no effect on whether I can see, as I’m sure you know. This is all rather needlessly dramatic.

ARCHIVIST  
[Testily] Is it?

ELIAS (JONAH)  
[Immediate] Very much.  
And where’s Martin, then? [Feigning dismay] Oh, has he left you again? How unkind of him.

  
ARCHIVIST  
[Thin laugh] Imagining yourself taking after Lukas, then, are you? Trying to divide us won’t work.

ELIAS (JONAH)  
[Immediate] No. Peter was sloppy. And you do _say_ that, yet here you are. Alone.  
[A brief, almost polite pause. Static crackles softly in the background, then clears once again] Ah. I understand. Martin didn’t want to see you like this, did he. No, no, excuse me-- _you_ didn’t want him to see you like this.  
Shame is such a fascinating blend of fears, don’t you think? That you’ll lose him like you’ve lost your humanity. Or that he’ll be overcome by the violence that you’d _thought_ he was immune to before, and it will be your fault--

  
ARCHIVIST  
[Cutting him off] Martin is as safe as he’ll be anywhere. And so are Melanie, and Georgie, Daisy, Basira-- you’re not getting near any of them again.

  
ELIAS (JONAH)  
Are you _threatening_ me, Jon? Good lord. I thought you would have accepted it by now. _You_ completed the ritual, you set up this world of ours, and I am king of it. I cannot die.

  
ARCHIVIST  
[Sarcastic] Mm _,_ yes, I _did_ get that impression from your big evil speech, thanks. [Dropping pretense] I understand perfectly. It was a relief knowing for sure, really. I don’t have to worry about the others’ safety if something happens to go wrong.

  
ELIAS (JONAH)  
Do you honestly expect me to think you’re even capable--

  
ARCHIVIST  
Yes.

[A prickle of static.]

ELIAS (JONAH)  
...  
[Explaining as though patient] We don’t have _time_ for this, Jon.

ARCHIVIST  
[Cutting him off] _No._ Now we have nothing _but_ time. You saw to that. You. Saw. To _all_ of this. [Sharply, before a word can fit in] Question. Are you really so afraid of death that you’d trade anything for it?

ELIAS (JONAH)  
What?

ARCHIVIST  
[Enunciating] Do you think immortality means nothing harming you?

  
[Jonah breathes in as if to answer haughtily. Then pauses. His breath catches like on a hook.  
The hollow silence gets more pointed as it continues.

In the background static builds, at first fuzzy and indistinct, until it crowds out all the air; it has levels to it, one crackling like angry insects, one like the highest note on a violin that's clearer than broken glass. This is Jon’s compulsion effect.]

[Jonah continues not to answer, but isn’t silent. He makes choked off, furious noises, as if fighting himself.]

  
ARCHIVIST  
Right. Maybe _I_ should explain. [The static continues behind his words while Jonah sputters in the background.] I haven’t gotten a chance yet, it’s really only fair that I get a monologue as well.

It’s very simple. There are a lot of things worse than the End, and Gertrude knew most of them. And now I know what she knew. You can say what you like about my-- ingratitude, or _impetuousness_ , but I’ve never had a problem getting my hands dirty. The Institute prefers that in its Archivists, doesn’t it? And I was always a quick study.

[A heavy, metallic thud and smaller clangs as several bladed objects are dropped on the ground]

I’m going to peel your skin back from itself and replace layers of your gristle with sawdust, you see. Pack it in with wax. Separate your legs and arms at the joints. I’ll chop Elias’ head from his neck, with you inside it, and cut out its tongue. And you won’t die. You can keep your eyes, I think. See how that goes for you.  
What’s left of you I’ll roll in some polythylene and seal it airtight, so you can sit in a nice little pocket of darkness in the eons it’ll take the plastic to degrade. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a front-row seat to watching all the worms and beetles spawn and crawl and die over your transparent cell, and if _I’m_ lucky, they’ll chew through it and into your bones. And you won’t die.

I’m not looking for a statement, Magnus. I don’t think _our_ master will be too surprised by anything inside your head, anyway. But I’m still keeping whatever the hell that is running, so we have a proper record. Because you were right, with what you wrote in your ruse of a letter. I am curious. I’ve always been curious.

[Steadily, clearly enunciating] _Tell me what you_ _fear_ _, Jonah Magnus_.

[Jonah snarls, stubbornly wordless. It’s not a sound a human has made before.]

ARCHIVIST  
[Murderous] I suppose right now the answer is me.

[Tape continues running.]

-

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone's confused about the summary, you're not missing anything, those lines actually are not in the fic itself. It was the best I could come up with without being even more spoilery to the podcast, which I tried to avoid in the description
> 
> This came to me all at once, legit, and I have no idea where it came from, what leads up to it or how it continues except that Jon does exactly what he said and it's horrible just all around for everyone. I don't even know what else to do with it, so. Have it. Is yours now
> 
> The ‘There are a lot of things worse than [death]’ line is from the ‘American Gods’ side-story novella, ‘Monarch Of The Glen’ by Neil Gaiman. It's originally said by Grendel’s mother, who’s described as a small old woman who everyone cowers before. I’ve been thinking of it and Gertrude for a while.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


End file.
